More on macrocosm and microcosm

The previous post discusses the interaction and interconnectedness of the macrocosm of heaven-and-earth, and the microcosm of the human body -- and the evidence that the ancients understood this interrelatedness and attached great importance to it.

As some readers may harbor some doubts regarding the reality of this harmony between the cosmos without and the cosmos within, here is a passage from a book by a master and teacher of esoteric Taoism, Mantak Chia (here's his website). It comes from page 154 of his 2001 book Cosmic Healing II: Taoist Cosmology and Universal Healing Connections (with co-author Dirk Oellibrandt). Under a series of diagrams illustrating the similarities of the structure and motion of our solar system to the structure and motion of atoms, molecules, and the double-helix of the DNA molecule (which you can see by beginning on page 149 in the book and then reading forward while looking at the diagrams, following this link) he writes:

If we look at the paths the sun and the planets are making, as they move around the center of the Milky Way, we observe a very interesting spiral structure. Because of the increasing rotation of the planets as we move outward through the solar system, the spiral structure becomes larger from Mercury to Pluto (rotation time for Mercury: 88 days, Pluto: 90,465 days).

The long stretched spiral shows a similarity to a DNA structure. These structures belong to the most fundamental building blocks of the body cells and also contain a complicated transmitter and receiver system that pick up the continuous changes in the solar system, the Milky Way and the vibrational world.

If we compare the form of the spiraling Milky Way and DNA seen below, the shape becomes even more similar.

[. . .] There's a striking relationship between the I Ching and the genetic structure, with the number 64 as the central aspect, illustrating the relationship between spiritual laws and genetic structure.

The diagram on page 152 of that book illustrates the double helix arising from the spiraling motion of the planets (again, it is worth visiting the book to see that). The animation in the video above conveys the same message. The connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm is powerfully evident.

In the passage above, Mantak Chia also points out the fact that the "four-letter alphabet" of the genetic code arranged into triplets of three can create a total of 64 different triplets (called "codons"). He notes that this fact parallels the I Ching, which has 64 hexagrams (which are actually sets of six, and thus double the triplets of the genetic structure, while using an "alphabet" of only two possible "letters," which halves that of the genetic alphabet of four bases). The 64 codons of the genetic material that make up all known living organisms are visually shown on this web page, particularly in Figure 2.

This harmony between the most cutting-edge field of medical research today (genetics) and the most ancient of the classic sacred texts of China is indeed striking. We have seen in previous posts that ancient wisdom that was once known in Egypt appears to have survived in China and other points east, while being forgotten or forced "underground" elsewhere.

It is also striking that the double-helix structure of DNA (only discovered by "modern" science in the 1960s) is prefigured in the caduceus symbol of Hermes (Mercury, Thoth), the ancient god who gave letters to mankind. This symbol is of course associated with medicine and thus with the human body as well (the microcosm), while also being associated with the speeding planet closest to the sun (and the one which traces out a double helix most clearly if you watch the animation in the video above carefully several times).

You can also see a sort of double helix traced out by the graceful motion of the sun arcing sinuously above and below the celestial equator in the video embedded in this website and discussed in this previous blog post -- yet another connection between the macrocosm of the earth-and-heavens and the structure inside our cells that makes us who we are.

These are just a few examples which support the understanding of a powerful connection between the heavens and the "microcosm" of the human frame. The question remains, "How did the ancients know so much about this?"